Pick Your Poison
by Squid84
Summary: Following Kate's untimely death, the park is laced with misery and woe. When it becomes too much for Humphrey to take, everything which held him and the entire Western territory together becomes unraveled.


**I have offered to take over this story and was graciously given permission to do so from MojotheOmegaWolf. Much of the story at first will be just a repeat of the story already written by Mojo himself and I'll just look for grammar and spelling errors. Chapter 24 will be my own work as will every chapter that will follow there after. He had started chapter 24 but never got far, so I will use what he had and build on from there. MojotheOmegaWolf was one of the greats of A/O Fanfiction and I will strive to live up to his level as I finish out the story in his leaving of the site. This is an older story started 4 years ago and as life would have it, time got away and updates were far and few. Mojo if you by chance are reading this, I hope it lives up to your expectations and finishes in the way you would've done so.**

 **WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT**

The day was nearing an end in Jasper, the eastward pointing shadows growing long as the sun made its routine descent over the curve of the earth. The mountains and the trees were lavished in an assortment of blues, reds, and purples and the wind breathed fresh life over the park. There could be heard the rustling of leaves in this soft breeze, along with the mighty roar of Howling Rock Falls, and the pleasant trickling of water in the tiny stream that snaked its way through the Western territory. It was a warm spring evening, quite nice to be out in; but then again, nothing on this day would ever be seen as pleasant, or nice, or calm for the Western wolves.

The sniffling, sobs, and wails of mourning friends, family, and lovers sounded dominantly in the den area of their home. They mourned for the recent death as they would for their own pup. But the most heartbroken of these wails came from about a quarter mile down stream where the creek came to a bend. Beyond that bend was a den, small and seemingly out of place; the kind of den in which you would expect an omega to call home. Deep and painful cries of woe and sorrow belched from the cave and reached out to the world that the owner of these had shut himself away from. Passers by would hear these cries and begin to tear up, knowing why it was that this young wolf cried so. They all knew that her death wasn't his fault, but he wouldn't' listen to them.

How could it _not_ be his fault?

He was the one who had biffed the log upon landing, spilling the two of them out into the torrent of hooves. She stood and was kicked in the head, the hoof making contact with her temple, causing her body to die but her brain to still work. She stood up and pumped her legs, getting hit again by another hoof. She rolled over a few times from the hit then rolled to her feet and turned a barrel roll, landing it and then rolling over onto her back and flailing her legs in the air. He dodged hooves and rushed to her and she rolled to her feet, jumped one more time, and then fell lifeless into his arms. It was all his fault she was dead and now he resided in his den, alone and broken.

The den was positioned so that whenever the evening came around like now, there would be light that touched the front half of the inside, but the back stayed dark in case the owner felt he needed an early slumber.

In this dark half of the den there lay a slender, slate gray omega wolf curled tightly into a secure ball sobbing uncontrollably. The horrible scene kept playing over and over again in his mind, haunting him and sending him deeper and deeper into sadness each and every time it reoccurred. Again he saw Kate's body laid out in his arms, and then looking down upon the leaf made blanket that covered her as she lay in a deep hole yet to be filled. The scene ended and new tears began to fall.

There was a commotion outside of the den and he heard voices whispering, most likely about him, inaudibly to each other. He could tell that whoever they were, they were coming into his den. He turned his back to the opening and curled into a tighter ball, reducing his loud cries down to soft sniffs. The animals approaching his den stopped outside the mouth and peered into the darkness. They couldn't see the wolf inside but they knew he was there from the sniffling in the back.

"H... Humphrey?" Salty called into the den.

There was no response, just a scratching sound as Humphrey shifted his position. He had no desire to speak to anybody at the moment.

"Come on Humphrey," Salty began again after a brief moment of silence, "come on out and talk to us man. You've just been layin' there alone ever since..."

"Shhh!" the small gray omega named Shaky warned.

There was a loud growl in the back of the den the like of which the three of them had never heard before. There were the pops of tight joints as Humphrey rose to his feet and the scrapes of paws as he began stumbling drunkenly to the front of the den.

His face appeared in the light, followed by the rest of his body .

He looked awful; his fur was straggly and matted, he was covered in mud and had yet to wash off ant of Kate's blood that had dripped onto his chest from her head wound. Above everything else, he looked extremely pissed off and his blood shot eyes only added to the fear Humphrey generated in his friends.

"Humphrey, I..." Salty began nervously, but was interrupted by an even darker growl from Humphrey.

"You three better leave right now if you know what's good for you!" Humphrey warned through clenched teeth.

Again, he had absolutely NO desire to speak with ANYBODY. Why couldn't they just get that through their thick heads?

The three of them stepped back a few paces, but didn't leave like they were warned.

"Humphrey," Salty said and took a step into the den.

Humphrey now shook.

"Are you fucking deaf? I said LEAVE!"

Humphrey lashed out quickly and slashed three deep gashes across Salty's left cheek. Salty stood for a moment with his paw over his bleeding wounds completely shocked. He had NEVER seen Humphrey become violent in his entire life.

Another growl rose in Humphrey again and this time they turned sullenly to leave, Salty with tears brimming in his eyes. Humphrey watched them as they went and then looked down at the blood on his claws then at the blood that had dripped from Salty's face to the floor of the den. There came a dark chuckle in him that quickly built up until it was a hysterical laugh. After a moment of this he dropped his head to catch his breath. He lifted his head again but this time something completely different came forth.

"FUUUUCK!" Humphrey screamed at the top of his lungs.

His heart began to race as a deep, seething anger began to overtake and darken his mind.

"FUUUUUCK!" he yelled again and slammed his paw into the wall closest to him.

"God damn it! AHHHHHHH!"

He began to pound on the wall with his fist, blood beginning to be left after each impact.

"Why the fuck did this have to happen? Why did you have to take her away from me?"

By this time quite a crowd of wolves began to make their way hurriedly over to his den. Humphrey screamed again and slammed his shoulder into the wall of the den, then turned and smashed into another wall.

"What the fuck! AHHHHHHH!" he sprinted for another wall with his head down.

"Ahhhhhhh! FUCK!"

He slammed the top of his head into the wall and took a step back, leaving blood smeared onto the wall and in the fur on the top of his head. He stared at his crimson reflection with hate.

"This is all your fault you fuck face!"

He punched his reflection.

"You fucking did this! This is all your fucking fault!"

The group of wolves gathered about his den stood by and watched the display in horror. Finally a wolf took a step into the mouth of the den and started to quickly walk over to Humphrey. Humphrey caught him in the corner of his eye and turned to him with venom in his glare.

"NO! You keep the fuck away from me!"

The wolf stopped briefly then continued on to try and calm him down.

Humphrey smashed the wall again and staggered backward. The wolf put a paw on Humphrey's shoulder.

"Don't fucking touch me!" Humphrey spat and gashed the wolf's face with his claws.

The wolf Humphrey had just assaulted was Winston. Eve saw this and a fierce growl rose into her throat. She began to stalk over to Humphrey with the intent to kill, but was stopped by Winston.

"No Eve, don't hurt him. He told me to stay back but I didn't listen. That was poor judgment on my part.

Humphrey had no idea of what was going on around him. The intense ringing in his ears made it very difficult to hear.

He began to feel weak and dizzy from the blow on his head and the loss of blood that was the result. A blackness began to consume him and he fell to the ground, sobbing until he lost concsiousness.


End file.
